Get ready to open your wallets a bit more. Whether you are in the chemical business, the services industry or the business of feeding people, the cost of business continues to rise. As those costs rise, so too are the number of questions surrounding the emergence of inflation into economies hoping to emerge from the […]
Chemical Connections
Immense challenges facing chemical, polymer procurers
Mid-February’s prolonged freeze on the Texas-Louisiana coast has juiced up market commentary as much as it has most petrochemical and polymer pricing. Just days after the storm, a polyethylene (PE) trader said that the freeze’s effects on regional and global supplies would be “worse than Hurricane Harvey”. Perhaps so, because not long after, a PE […]
Three markets to watch amid stimulus efforts
The Democrat Party sweep of the Georgia runoff senatorial elections this week means President-elect Joseph Biden will take office on 20 January with his party in control of both houses of Congress and thus an easier path to enacting the policies on which he campaigned. The blog previously outlined some possibilities for pandemic-recovery economic stimulus […]
3 stimulus possibilities under the Biden administration
US president-elect Joseph Biden has called the recently passed $900bn second round of coronavirus-related economic stimulus a down-payment to what he will promote passage of after he is sworn into office on 20 January 2021. What that third round of stimulus will look like will be shaped in part by the two 5 January 2021 […]
Plastic rubbish: the pandemic is increasing rather than reducing the pressure for change
This is the first of a series of blog posts where I will examine the environmental paradigm shift and what it means for the petrochemicals industry. This first post deals with the bottom end of the value chain, the plastic packaging business, and the pressure being exerted upward on petrochemicals producers to change how they […]
Good recycling news plants seeds for further advances
This year continues to be a “slog,” a word when said aloud just reeks of 2020. I guess that would be onomatopoeia for those you who remember your high school literature lessons and/or author Edgar Allan Poe. Hence, it’s doubly joyful when some good news comes along such as Chevron Phillips Chemical’s (CPChem) announcement on […]
Could recycling bring naphtha back in style?
Last week, the blog took a look at how government policies could shape a market such as that for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). The scenarios analysed uncovered a major point: A major upsurge in demand above the 2.24m tonnes base case for 2025 jeopardises operations for disadvantaged LLDPE plants globally. However, the demand for […]
How policies could shape LLDPE’s future
There should be little doubt that government policies across the globe will play a critical role in stimulating, rebuilding and reshaping economies staggering from the damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, which came at the time most were pushing forward with burgeoning sustainability and circularity efforts. Whether through ambitious “new deal” kinds of programmes, hands-off, […]
Decoupling talk is decoupled from reality
It was supposed to be a harmless press conference honouring the US Labor Day holiday, but President Donald Trump made a statement about possible changes in the US-China relationship that if implemented would have substantial implications for chemical markets. In vowing to bolster US manufacturing by reshoring jobs from China should he be elected to […]
The US economy’s hall of mirrors
The US economic recovery from pandemic-induced shutdowns is about as disjointed an endeavour as I can recall. Recent data releases and surveys paint a quite jumbled picture. Take this week’s Beige Book release from the Federal Reserve, which distils inputs from regional Reserve bank surveys into the following summation: Employment – Up overall since falling […]
Jump to page: